A couple was on Thursday night robbed of an undisclosed amount of cash, jewellery and electronic devices by armed bandits who invaded their restaurant, shut it down and demanded their valuables.
According Lianggen Su and Su-Yang Kuan Qing, proprietors of Chung Lee Chinese Restaurant, at Rosignol, West Coast Berbice, at around 22:15 hrs, six men entered the premises and brutally assaulted them as they demanded cash. Lianggen Su said the men were heavily armed with guns, cutlasses and knives. They were dressed in black.
He said one bandit pounced on him first in the shop and gun butted him. As he screamed, the proprietor said, the others ran in. “They… lock up the glass and metal doors… We were still open for business,” he said. “… They put me to lie on the ground, them beat me and kick me up… and ask me where the money?”
Su said he directed them to the money that was in the corner. But they were unsatisfied and demanded more. He said he told them that was all he had, but the bandits went ahead and ransacked his shop and the upper flat where he stores groceries.
When Stabroek News arrived at the scene yesterday morning it was evident that it had been ransacked.
Continuing, Su said the gunmen tied his hands with cable and placed a t-shirt over his head. They then collected Su’s wife, Su-Yang Kuan Qing, who was at the back of the restaurant. The woman related that three men dragged her upstairs and placing a knife to her neck, demanded more valuables. At this point the bandits snagged the laptop computers and their iPhones. According to Qing, they harassed her as they demanded the cash and other valuables and all she did was plead with them to spare their lives.
During the ordeal, an employee and her boyfriend were also terrorised. The employee, Beverly, said she was washing a garbage bin at the back and was clueless as to what was taking place. She re-entered into the restaurant’s kitchen and was replacing the bin in its place when one of the armed men pounced on her and placed her with Su and her boyfriend to lie on the ground. She said the remaining three bandits placed a collapsible chair over their bodies and stood on it.
After the 15 minutes ordeal the men escaped, leaving Su and the others tied up. Su managed to free himself and sound an alarm and neighbours and passersby went to their rescue and took him to the hospital. At the hospital he received medical attention for the injuries he sustained.
Su also said that when he called the Blairmont Police Station he got no response. He then decided to call the Fort Wellington Police Station and ranks responded close to an hour after the call was made.
The proprietors indicated that this is the first time they have been robbed in their 23 years of doing business.
Meanwhile, Alliance for Change Executive Moses Nagamootoo condemned the actions of lawmen. He told Stabroek News via telephone that the police have to be more serious with their jobs and respond to crime in a timely manner.
The victims of the robbery do not have any suspects as the men were clothed in all black. “They were in black all over only them eye I could have seen…” Su said.
